Appointment Television

Latest Episodes:

Episode 147: Kathryn goes to ATX, and the characters TV chooses to kill Jun 21, 2018

Show notes

This week, Kathryn gives us her report on what went down at the ATX TV festival in Austin. Then, spurred by a recent Mo Ryan tweet thread, we talk about why TV chooses to kill so many of its all-too-rare women and PoC characters in the current "anyone can die" twist-and-shocker-heavy world of TV dramas.

SHOW NOTES:

ATX interviews via the TV Campfire podcast: http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/23/atx-television-festival-podcast-the-tv-campfire/

Kathryn's interview on American Vandal Season 2: http://www.vulture.com/2018/06/american-vandal-atx-festival-interview.html

An Oral History of Nana's Party: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/06/anatomy-of-a-scene-american-vandal-netflix-nanas-party-making-of-oral-history

Mo Ryan on women and PoC characters dying on TV: https://twitter.com/moryan/status/1006203919939325952

Apparently, not *anyone* can die: https://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/tv-deaths-walking-dead-the-100-arrow-1201751968/

Character TV deaths in 2015-16, tracked: https://www.vox.com/a/tv-deaths-lgbt-diversity

Episode 146: Netflix taste buckets and ER book club part 4 Jun 14, 2018

Show notes

After a week's delay due to Kathryn sounding like a monster from a children's movie, we return with full voices to discuss the final installment of our ER book club. Margaret swears she will never trust David Krumholtz again. First, though, we talk about some Netflix news and yell about the weird phenomenon of half seasons.

Episode 145: Roseanne gets the Kiss of Death, and our summer TV preview Jun 07, 2018

Show notes

This week, we talk briefly about Roseanne's terrible behavior bringing down her successful rebooted sitcom, delivering an unexpected (but not unappreciated) ATV Kiss of Death to yet another program. Then, we spend some time looking forward to this summer's TV; there's a surprising amount that you should add to your schedule.

SHOW NOTES:

Roseanne canceled because Roseanne Barr is racist: http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/29/media/roseanne-twitter-chelsea-clinton/index.html

Set It Up on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80184100

Marvel's Cloak & Dagger on Freeform: https://freeform.go.com/shows/marvels-cloak-and-dagger

Pose on Netflix: http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/pose

Sharp Objects on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/sharp-objects

Queer Eye on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80160037

Kimmy Schmidt Season 4 on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80025384

GLOW on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80114988

The Bold Type on Freeform: https://freeform.go.com/shows/the-bold-type

Younger on TV Land: http://www.tvland.com/shows/younger

Episode 144: Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Law & Order TV Justice May 31, 2018

Show notes

We begin our conversation by welcoming back guest host Christina Tucker, who joins us to talk about the wild ride of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's cancellation and swift resurrection. We also talk about the tricky, complicated dynamics of storytelling designed to humanize cops. Afterward, it's the return of TV vs TV! Thanks to a patreon supporter, we spend some time considering the vitally important question of best SVU guest star. As per usual, Margaret comes slightly underprepared and Andrew brings jokes.

Episode 143: ER book club part 3, and are we the kiss of death? May 24, 2018

Show notes

This week ATV welcomes back Christina Tucker to talk about the next installment in our ER book club, and it's a good thing we do because someone needed to make sure we fully appreciate Julianna Margulies. Before we get to ER, though, it sudden occurs to us that many of the shows we talk about on ATV... get cancelled?

Episode 142: New Arrested Development, and what intelligence looks like on TV May 17, 2018

Show notes

This week we chat a bit about the recut S4 and forthcoming S5 of Arrested Development, a show we thought we'd seen the last of. Then, we talk about the different ways in which TV communicates intelligence.

SHOW NOTES:

The Arrested Development announcement: https://twitter.com/MitchHurwitz/status/991373460986249216

"I make a lot of graphs": https://media.giphy.com/media/l2JdSDAAwdtVa4bzW/giphy.gif

The quintessential GIF: https://media.giphy.com/media/yJu2jIQZgPubm/giphy.gif

Episode 141: Late-night Busy-ness and ER book club part 2 May 10, 2018

Show notes

First: in some places during this episode, Margaret sounds like she's being played on an old dusty record player. We are sorry about that!

We chat briefly about how there should be more women in late night, which is both obvious and yet still a weirdly, unconscionably lopsided thing about TV culture. Happily, Busy Philips is going to have a talk show on E! Then we turn to the next in our ER book club, which includes a discussion of "Blizzard," "Love's Labor Lost" and "Everything Old Is New Again." If discussions of bad medical outcomes during labor and delivery is going to be upsetting for you... maybe skip some of this!

Episode 140: Alex Inc., Zach Braff, and working-class TV May 03, 2018

Show notes

This week, we finally finish up our 2018 TV overview by talking about the oft-delayed Zach Braff project Alex, Inc., which in the Margaret's words was a show we could "barely hate." We also talk about when America fell out of love with Zach Braff, and what non-Roseanne working-class TV looks like right now.

SHOW NOTES, such as they are: Alex Inc. http://abc.go.com/shows/alex-inc

Episode 139: The Simpsons' problem with Apu and ER book club part 1 Apr 26, 2018

Show notes

After The Simpsons' truly terrible response to criticism of its character Apu, we talk about what The Simpsons has done wrong, and how weird it is for a show to absolutely refuse to change over time. Then we talk about the pilot episode of ER for our latest book club, and Margaret and Andrew are very patient while Kathryn goes a little bonkers over tracking shots.

Episode 138: "80% attention" recommendations and solving magical crimes Apr 19, 2018

Show notes

This week, Kathryn gives another round of TV recommendations to a listener who's looking for a show she only has to mostly pay attention to. Then, we spend an hour with the magical ABC crime procedural Deception, and we detail both the kinds of magic we would like to see in future cases and the far-fetched occupations we'd like to see teamed up with the FBI.

SHOW NOTES:

Sports Night: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165961/

Justified: http://www.fxtv.com.au/justified

Elementary: https://www.cbs.com/shows/elementary/

Pitch: https://www.fox.com/pitch/

Timeless: https://www.nbc.com/timeless?nbc=1

New Girl: https://www.fox.com/new-girl/

Terriers: https://tv.avclub.com/terriers-perfect-one-season-run-defied-description-ma-1798246162

Deception: http://abc.go.com/shows/deception